Diagonal Holes in Ground (?)

[TheSeedObsesser]

Yesterday I was rushing to plant some seeds before the forecasted rain came. I broadcasted radish, lettuce, welsh onion, and black cumin seeds and planted my peas and garbanzos in rows. I woke up this morning to these odd holes all over the broadcasted areas, nothing in the rows. They seem to be running down at an angle, are fairly small in diameter, all go down about the same depth - they appear to be made by bugs (?). I was thinking that it was the rain at first - but like I said, only in the broadcasted areas nothing in the rows. They don't seem to like either the rows, or the larger-seeded stuff.

Pictures coming later (we're going on a long drive to Toledo - 4 hr drive total). I'm just hoping that somebody here might now what they are right off the bat.

 

[so lucky]

Could be a grub/big brown beetle tunnel as they come out of the ground.
If they were larger (about an inch in diameter) I'd say voles.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Roughly what diameter and how deep? Photos could certainly help.

When I first started reading I thought of voles too, but that doesn't sound right with that description. If they go down a certain depth they did not come from underground. It sounds like something digging from the surface. The larger animals like skunks or armadillos that might be digging for grubs would leave cone shaped holes straight down, not small diameter or going at an angle. I'd think mice or rats would be similar.

Was it in all your broadcast area or just certain seeds? Could it possible have been birds looking for certain seeds?

Later in the summer I'll have wasps digging a hole, catching a grasshopper and stinging it, then burying that so the larva has a food source when it hatches, but that is months away. Those holes are not at an angle either but instead straight down.

It does sound like a bug, but I don't have a clue which one. It might be laying eggs instead of looking for food.

You didn't by chance poke those seeds in with your finger and he rain settled dirt in those depressions? No, that's too much of a stretch.

 

[digitS']

Who has been out there . .

. leaning on a pitchfork and looking at that newly sown ground?

Steve

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Steve, I wish it was that easy. The holes are spaced erratically across the ground, not in a straight line. I wasn't leaning on a pitchfork, but I was leaning on a stiff rake.

Ridge, I came back to find that it had rained fairly hard while we were gone. Enough to fill the holes in. They weren't to wide at all, maybe... a little under half a centimeter? I'd have to say they were probably a centimeter or two deep. Take or give a few on both of those calculations. We don't have armadillos around here, so I would probably actually be happy to see one.

The wholes were in the entire broadcast area. We do have some small species of birds around here, but the holes were like perfect cylinders and not in the shape that a bird's beak would make. Maybe they are bugs that were just attracted to the flatness of the very fine-grained soil, and decided that it would be a good spot to lay eggs?

I didn't poke that many in with my finger, just a few. My fingers aren't that small either. It's a pretty large broadcast area.

 

[seedcorn]

Are they larger than night crawler holes? This time of year, they come up looking for trash to eat on top, plus to breed.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

ground bees?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll translate for Seedo. The width was half a centimeter, that's 1/5 of an inch. The depth of the holes were around 2/5 to 4/5 of an inch deep. Of course he said that was approximate. They could be a little bit bigger or smaller, deeper or more shallow. it's them having a bottom that discounts a bunch of things for me. Seedo's usually pretty observant.

I did a quick search on ground bees. I didn't know that sweat bees were ground bees. Interesting. Anyway, ground bees mound dirt up around the hole and build a burrow underground. Seedo, were there mounds?

My guess (and it is only a guess) is that some insects swarmed on that bare fresh ground and had a sex orgy. Then they buried eggs. It's a good thing Seedo didn't see that since he is probably under-aged. That orgy should have been X-rated.

 

[catjac1975]

Any chance that they are earthworms? They come out a lot in the rain especially in spring.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Ridge,

No mounds, just flat soil. Mating bugs would be my guess too, I just hope that the radishes don't grow over the eggs before they hatch. I don't want radishes with half-hatched bug eggs inside of them. At least mating bugs could be taken as a sign of a healthy environment.

...X-rated insect sex scenes. Don't forget that the radishes are too young, only mature radish plants should be able to see that kind of stuff.

Seedcorn,

Nighcrawler holes would be bigger. That and the tunnels are completely straight and all end at a certain depth. The wholes are only in the areas that I broadcasted (Flat area with very fine soil that bugs might find favorable for breeding. I also tilled the broadcasted area, and not the rows, so the soil texture and all of that is a little bit different.). I don't think that they're night crawler wholes.